Judges 15:8

_AND HE SMOTE THEM HIP AND THIGH WITH A GREAT SLAUGHTER: AND HE WENT DOWN AND DWELT IN THE TOP OF THE ROCK ETAM._ Smote them hip and thigh - a proverbial expression for a merciless slaughter. WENT DOWN AND DWELT IN THE TOP OF THE ROCK ETAM - rather, went down and dwelt х_ BIC`IYP_ (H5585)] in a cleft; i:e., a cave or cavern of the 'cliff' Etam....

1-8 When there are differences between relations, let those be reckoned the wisest and best, who are most forward to forgive or forget, and most willing to stoop and yield for the sake of peace. In the means which Samson employed, we must look at the power of God supplying them, and making them successful, to mortify the pride and punish the wickedness of the Philistines. The Philistines threatened Samson's wife that they would burn her and her father's house. She, to save herself and oblige her countrymen, betrayed her husband; and the very thing that she feared, and by sin sought to avoid, came upon her! She, and her father's house, were burnt with fire, and by her countrymen, whom she thought to oblige by the wrong she did to her husband. The mischief we seek to escape by any unlawful practices, we often pull down upon our own heads....

Verse Judges 15:8. _HE SMOTE THEM HIP AND THIGH_] This also is variously understood; but the general meaning seems plain; he appears to have had no kind of defensive weapon, therefore he was obliged to grapple with them, and, according to the custom of _wrestlers, trip_ _up their feet_, and then bruise them to death. Some translate _heaps_ _upon heaps_; others, _he smote horsemen and footmen_; others, _he_ _wounded them from their legs to their thighs_, c., c. See the different _versions_. Some think in their running away from him he _kicked_ them down, and then trod them to death: thus his _leg_ or _thigh_ was against their _hip_ hence the expression. _THE TOP OF THE ROCK ETAM._] It is very likely that this is the same place as that mentioned...

HIP AND THIGH - A proverbial expression of doubtful origin, meaning all the “great” and “mighty,” all the choice pieces like the thigh and shoulder. IN THE TOP OF THE ROCK - Rather, “the cleft of the rock.” These clefts of the rock were the natural fortresses and hiding places of the land. (Isaiah 2:21; Isaiah 57:5. Compare 1 Samuel 13:6; 1 Kings 18:13.) ETAM - Not the same as the place in the territory of Simeon 1 Chronicles 4:32. I

EXPOSTION JUDGES 15:1 WITHIN A WHILE—the same expression as that in Judges 14:8, rendered "after a time," and in Judges 11:4, rendered "in_ _process of time." IN THE TIME OF WHEAT HARVEST—about the month of May. The harvest, as appears from Judges 11:5, had begun, some corn being already cut, and in shocks; the rest still standing, and, being ready to be cut, of course extremely dry and inflammable. WITH A KID, as a present, intended no doubt to make peace (Genesis 38:17).

AND HE SMOTE THEM HIP AND THIGH WITH A GREAT SLAUGHTER,.... Either smote them on their hips and thighs with his hands (for it does not appear he had any weapon of war), so that they were sadly bruised, and maimed, and lamed, that they could not stir, and of which blows and bruises multitudes died: or he smote them with his legs on their thighs, kicked them about at pleasure, which kicks numbers of them never got over; or the meaning of the proverbial expression is, he laid on them at a great rate, and smote them here and there, and any where, which issued in the death of many of them: the Targum is, "he smote them horse and foot,'' their cavalry and infantry, destroyed them both; but it does not appear that they came out in an hostile manner unto him, and much less in the form of a regular army: AND HE WENT DOWN AND DWELT IN THE TOP OF THE ROCK ETAM. Josephus says e, that Samson havin...

CHAPTER 15 THE CONFLICT WITH THE PHILISTINES: BOUND YET FREE _ 1. The damage done to the Philistines (Judges 15:1)_ 2. Bound by his own brethren (Judges 15:9) 3. The deed with the jawbone (Judges 15:14) 4. His prayer and the answer (Judges 15:18) He discovered next the true character of the Philistines. His wife has been given to another. Nothing came of his alliance with the Philistines but trouble and unpleasantness for himself. Was it of the Lord when he took the 300 foxes (literally, jackals; it would have been hard work to catch 300 foxes, for they go alone, but jackals go in packs) and the fire

JUDGES 15. SAMSON AGAINST THE PHILISTINES. His anger having cooled, Samson went down to appease his betrothed and complete the marriage. When he learned how things stood, he was angrier than ever, and determined to wreak his revenge upon the Philistines. The stories of the burning of their corn and the slaughter of a thousand of them with an ass's jawbone are good examples of Heb. folklore. [For parallels, especially to a Roman ceremony at the _Cerealia,_ to the story of the foxes, see ICC and CB, also Frazer, _Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild,_ i., pp. 296 f. The corn-spirit is sometimes thought to assume the shape of a fox, but this has probably no bearing on this story. A. S. P.] Judges 15:4. Instead of foxes (which do not roam in packs) read jackals. The feud between Samson and the Philistines now became deadly....

WENT DOWN. Some codices, with one early printed edition, and Syriac, read "went". TOP. cleft....

_hip and thigh_ lit. _leg upon thigh_, so that the limbs of the slain fall one upon another: such seems to be the force of the prep, _upon_, cf. Amos 3:15 -the winter house _upon_the summer house," i.e. so that the one falls upon the other, and Genesis 32:11; Hosea 10:14. At any rate it is a proverbial expression for _with a great slaughter_. _the rock of Etam_ The Etam between Beth-lehem and Tekoa, 2 Chronicles 11:6, is too high up and too far away. Schick, who finds the scenes of Samson's exploits in the neighbourhood of -Artuf a little S.E. of Zorah, identifies Etam with -Araḳ Isma -în, near Marmita, remar